1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication technology using telecommunication, and more specifically, to a method and an apparatus for receiving information which enable sophisticated conveyance of information by transmitting coordinate data from a conventional general telephone capable of generating dual tone matrix frequency (DTMF) signals.
2. Related Art of the Invention
In recent years, since general telephones have been designed to be capable of generating DTMF signals, a number of communication methods using DTMF signals have been proposed and some of the methods have already been in the actual use. For example, in a facsimile apparatus disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application H7-162663, a pre-stored message is specified with the DTMF signal and the message is displayed at the receiver side. An example of the system structure of the prior art is shown in FIG. 29. In the figure, a receiving means 101 receives a DTMF signal, a decoding means 102 extracts an identification number of the message from the DTMF signal, a message retrieving means 103 retrieves the message from a message relating table 104 based on the identification number, and an outputting means 105 displays the retrieved message on the liquid crystal display screen. In the message relating table 104, identification numbers identified by DTMF signals and pre-stored messages are related with each other. This apparatus has an advantage, for example, that when the message to be transmitted is so simple that it is unnecessary for the receiver to take the trouble to go to the telephone, the message can be transmitted by a simple operation.
However, according to the prior art, only a sentence-form message such as "Late for the meeting" or a combination of a small figure such as an icon and a sentence is displayed and it is difficult to visually convey, for example, the degree or the time of the delay. Additionally, since only character information is displayed, it is necessary for the receiver to read the displayed information and such a message conveys a stiff impression. Further, there are also disadvantages that (1) it is difficult to convey easy-to-understand information which appeals to vision, and that (2) in view of the area of the display screen and the amount of information the user can read without stress, it is impossible to convey information being diversified or rich in expression. A reason for the disadvantages is that the DTMF signals are simple signals transmitting only numbers corresponding to the push buttons of the telephone and the prior art uses the numbers only as identifiers.